The Line Begins to Blur
by Lady Lemon Drop
Summary: On his knees and suddenly surrounded by Aurors, Sirius' words began to ring in his mind. 'You will die, Harry' Kind of a soul bond fic... but not really. My twist on an overused classic.
1. Life Starts Now

**Important notes:** This is set just after the events in the Department of Mysteries in Harry's fifth year and is likely to carry on throughout his sixth and perhaps seventh year. The only thing that isn't cannon in this story so far is the fact that Sirius is alive, because, as you know (if you follow my work ;]) I bloody love him and can't seem to let him die unless it's absolutely necessary. It's actually necessary that he stays alive for this story to work – because it's all his fault that any of this ever happened =D You can assume that he had a fair trial and got a full pardon by this point as well – I'm just going to throw you right in it for once.

**This story is CO-AUTHORED** with a dear friend of mine, **You Have Been Warned **(there's a link on my profile). She's awesome, just hasn't quite found her voice yet – I only just managed to get her on fanfiction. We'll probably write alternate chapters. This one's mine, because I already had it written as a starter before I asked her if she wanted to help. We'll mark at the top who wrote the chapter!

**

* * *

The Line Begins to Blur**

Chapter One: **Life Starts Now**

* * *

'_I hate to see you fall down  
I'll pick you up off of the ground  
I've watched the weight of your world come down'_

Life Starts Now – Three Days Grace

* * *

He was supposed to be in hiding. He was supposed to be too cautious to go out in public, too cautious to get into a situation where more people can see him. Right now there were rumours, _whispers_ that he was back, that he was alive. That waiting was supposed to turn into fear, fear that would only strengthen with time, to the point where people would turn on one another and mistrust would breed in the barracks. Then he'd show himself to the public.

Only the assumption to be able to understand Lord Voldemort's way of thinking was what got people killed. People like Harry Potter.

The ground rumbled and tore apart at the seams as something drove up under the ground and into the air. Sirius Black grabbed his godsons' arm and pulled him down a nearby alleyway.

"That bastard!" He hissed between his teeth, breathless.

"Professor Dumbledore said -" started Harry.

"Exactly. He _said _Voldemort would lay low. He also _said_ you'd be safe in muggle London. Look where that got us."

Hermione fell past the small chain-link fence that was hiding them from view and into Sirius' awaiting arms, soon followed by Remus Lupin. She had blood on her cheek and a cut that ran the length of her outer arm. She almost sobbed with relief when she saw Harry standing doubled over, catching his breath under the cover of the barely concealed alley. She launched herself out of Sirius' grip and over to her best friend.

"Harry! You're okay! I thought -"

"I know, don't worry about me, I'm fine." He said quickly, holding an arm out to stop her from hugging him.

She swallowed hard, not quite daring to let herself go to the point of relenting to the tears swimming in her eyes. "Ron and... they're..." she started disjointedly. "I lost sight of them! Harry he's here. V- him. He's – I never thought I'd ever..." Sirius squeezed her shoulders.

"Deep breaths, Hermione. It's just the shock. You didn't expect to end up in a fight today; much less one You-Know-Who decided to attend. You're going to be fine. I'll apparate you back and-"

Remus was shaking his head. "Anti-aparation field. They had it planned. We'll have to try to get to Diagon Alley."

Sirius raised his wand, getting ready to go back out into the street. "Did you see where the Weasley's went?"

"Arthur made Molly take Ron and run, Ginny's missing. I'm not so sure where he went after that. Fred and George have managed to get a message to the Ministry, and to Dumbledore. I told them to try to find their way to Diagon Alley but they refuse to leave until we've found Ginny."

Remus scanned the Alley behind them momentarily before pushing Hermione gently in Harry's direction. "You two need to run, go down there, and follow the back streets until you find a crowded area. You need to get to The Leaky Cauldron – you can floo to Grimmauld Place from there."

Harry was already shaking his head. "No… this is my fault, I can't leave. Ginny's out there – what if they killed her, what then?"

Sirius' face slowly paled. "Harry you can't stay here. I know you've seen a lot, and you've fought for your life far more than any 16 year old lad should have to – but this isn't what you're used to. This is warfare. There are 40 Death Eaters out there, and You-Know-Who himself. It was planned – you were supposed to die today Harry, and I'm sorry to say this, but you aren't ready to face that many people at once. You go out there and you _will_ die, Harry."

Hermione held her breath, slowly reaching over to grab Harry's arm reassuringly. "Please, Harry. I know you want to help, but you can't fight this." She caught his eye and held his gaze for a moment as he breathed heavily, adrenaline already pumping through his veins in anticipation of a fight. "_Please_." She whispered, wide-eyed.

Before he could open his mouth, to relent or otherwise, a flash of red hair caught his eye across the street, through the fence. Two brutish looking Death Eaters had a hold on Ron as he struggled under their grip, blood trailing down from the corner of his mouth and a nasty looking gash marring his arm through his torn right sleeve. Without a seconds thought he had pulled himself out of Hermione's grip, dodged around Remus, away from Sirius' flailing arm and out of their hiding spot into the open.

Two stunners immediately came flying in his direction, followed by a nasty looking purple curse. By the time he had managed to get out of the way of them he had been hit by a slicing curse to the knee, and another to his right arm.

What Professor Dumbledore had told him a month prior, about the prophecy and his fate - his destiny in life, suddenly really hit home. He had to fight Voldemort. And he wasn't ready. He couldn't fight, not now, and not then. Certainly not someone as powerful as Voldemort. On his knees and suddenly surrounded by Aurors, Sirius' words began to ring in his mind.

_You will die, Harry_

Ron's pain filled cry shattered the thoughts of despair ricocheting through his mind – a new found strength filling him. If he was going down, he was going down protecting his friends. Pushing himself to his feet despite the burning pain in his right leg, he threw a blasting hex at the man to his best friends' right, knocking the other off his feet in the process. With both of them on the floor, he quickly stunned them and pulled Ron out of the way as the Death Eaters that had been on guard nearby came running over, spells flying in their wake.

"What the hell happened?" He managed to yell through the stream of spells he was trying to remember and pull off correctly in a sorry attempt to save his life.

He didn't reply for a few minutes as they finished off the last Death Eater, ducking out behind a wall. "They've got the place surrounded – Mum was trying to make me leave, but I didn't want to leave you lot behind, while I was trying to convince her I could fight, we were attacked by Lestrange. I got carted off over here for 'safe keeping', and mum ended up duelling her. I guess they thought that you'd come out from wherever you were hiding if your friends were in trouble. Have you seen Ginny?" He rattled off in a rush.

"Well, it bloody worked." He winced, not daring to look down at his leg. "I haven't, no. Remus said she was missing."

Ron's ears slowly flushed red as his face went pale. It wasn't until he saw Hermione edge by that he spoke again, pulling her back behind the wall with his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming. She struggled for only a second before realising who it was that had her. He let go.

"Hermione! Have you seen Ginny?"

She shook her head sadly. "No, Ron, I'm sorry." She grabbed his arm as he made to run back out into the street. "Don't be stupid, he just did that to save _your _sorry backside, and look where that got him?" She glanced down at Harry's knee and pulled a face. "That looks painful."

He shook his head at her in response, running his hands through his hair desperately. "What are we going to do now?"

"Find the others." She said resolutely, straightening her back. "We need to stick together, follow me – I'll hold up a shield. Be on guard."

They walked out into chaos. In amongst the 25 Death Eaters fighting the ever so slightly outnumbered Aurors, there was a stunned and bound few being carted off out of the way, and what he hoped wasn't the dead body of Kingsley Shacklebott. Voldemort was nowhere to be seen.

Most were too preoccupied to take any notice of them as they ran towards the fallen Order member. Harry slid out from behind the shield momentarily to attempt to revive him with a simple _enervate_ charm. Surprisingly, it worked.

He was on his feet in under ten seconds – bleeding heavily, but alive. A building came to the ground ahead of them in an earth shattering rumble, causing him to pull the three of them away towards a group of Aurors banded with holding the captured Death Eaters. "Harry! What are you still doing here?" He looked to Ron and Hermione with something akin to fear. "You need to leave."

He turned to a nearby Auror, who nodded and grabbed Harrys arm, getting ready to escort him off out of the way of danger, two more soon following with Ron and Hermione.

"This is no place for you three, you will die out there." He said in a grave tone.

Anger bubbled up in his chest, unwilling to just walk away. "They're fighting out there because of me! You can't seriously expect me to just-"

But he wasn't listening. "Get them out of here. Stun them if you have to, just keep them safe."

As he was getting dragged away against his will, for the second time in 20 minutes, a Weasley caught his attention in the crowd of fighting Aurors and he was taken by surprise. Ginny. A man twice her size had hold of both of her arms. Emboldened, she stomped on his foot and managed to twist her way out of his grip, kneeing him in the groin purposefully in the process. He waited for her to stun him, but the moment never came.

As he began to subconsciously struggle out of the Aurors grip, he heard Hermione's voice behind him. "Stun him, now, before I do – he won't give up, and I love him too much to see him die."

They hadn't seen it. Not yet. No one had. _Why wasn't she using her wand? _He saw her stumble back to where fire from a nearby building hand bled out into the street, catching her hand. The pain on her face was so incandescent that he could almost feel it. Before he even realised what he was doing he was by her side, saving the second Weasley of the day. He had stunned the Death Eater before he even got there, suddenly finding himself in a crowd of people throwing spells, opposite a girl so strong, that even in agony, she had a face of stone.

It rippled ever so slightly as he glanced at her bleeding hand, gasping and swallowing hard in an attempt not to cry with the pain of it. She was squeezing her wrist so tight her knuckles had gone white. "They took my wand." She said, so softly he barley heard it over the roaring noise around them, her voice shaking with repressed distress.

The tremor of fear that went through him as she said those words was doubled as his scar began to tingle. Only that tingle turned into an ache, and then into a severe pounding that drummed in time with his thundering heart as the inevitable closed down on them. Nearby Death Eaters had turned to cast spells to weaken him in the wake of their master finally coming out to play.

A particularly strong severing curse sliced across Harry's side, the tail catching Ginny's stomach as she tried to move out of the way. Her entire body froze in fear as she saw who he had been waiting for over his shoulder. He turned in time to see Voldemort pull a twisted smile, nodding to someone to his right. A sickly pink spell hit him in the chest before he could react, and for a moment – nothing happened.

Then his heart stopped for a second as what felt like a knife tore through his chest. Ginny was by his side, holding him up, keeping him strong, even through her fear. The moment Voldemort set his eyes on her, and that horrible glare fixed onto his face, Harry knew what was going to happen next.

"Avada Kedavra!"

He didn't even think twice about doing it, not really. Something about the pain in his chest told him he was going to die in the next few seconds of his life anyway. So he turned with what last little bit of physical strength he had and grabbed Ginny, holding her tightly and keeping his back to the curse as it struck him instead of her.

He didn't even feel it hit, only the pain in his chest intensifying and coming to a climax as everything went the darkest shade of black he'd ever seen.

_You will die, Harry_

* * *

'_All this pain  
Take this life and make it yours.  
All this hate take your heart and let it love again.  
You will survive it somehow'_


	2. Collision

Disclaimer: We don't own Harry Potter.

Thought I'd add the above, because cotton for brains forgot to put it on last chapter. Oh, **to the anonymous reviewer** that didn't so much as put a name down for us to refer to – grow up, grow a pair and sign a review next time you want to be the critic. Also – buy a bloody dictionary. 'Emo' certainly isn't what you think it is, I mean seriously, what are you? 13? And we'll write the way we like, thank you very much. If you don't like it, lump it =] **But to all you other lovely reviewers**, thank you for the support – I still don't quite feel like this is 'my' story, if you get what I mean… but I guess I'll have to win myself over!

**This chapter is written by You Have Been Warned.**

**

* * *

The Line Begins to Blur**

Chapter Two: Collision

_

* * *

Where are we? What the hell is going on?_  
_ The dust has only just begun to fall,_  
_ Crop circles in the carpet, sinking, feeling._  
_ Spin me round again and rub my eyes._  
_ This can't be happening._  
_ When busy streets a mess with people_  
_ would stop to hold their heads heavy._

**Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap**_  
_

* * *

A sharp pain in Harry's side jolted him abruptly back into consciousness. Everything was black, and for a moment, he couldn't feel anything but for the cutting throb in his side, until he noticed something warm to his right as his mind began to take a better grasp on reality. In the darkness, he could just make out the fact that they seemed to have pushed two hospital beds together, and Ginny Weasley was lying as far away from him as they could have possibly managed, wrapped up in her own blankets with one arm loose, stretched out across the twin beds to grasp his hand loosely in her sleep.

He looked at their entwined fingers for what must have been a few minutes in a groggy haze before finally realising what was happening and more importantly, where he was. He tore his hand out of hers. She grimaced in her sleep and rolled onto her side, facing away from him, curling in on herself slightly. The entire room felt colder.

Trying to sit up and vaguely recollecting the events of what was now a few days earlier, he felt someone gently knock him back.

"Harry dear, you need to keep still." Mrs Weasley's soft motherly voice lulled him back into a sense of security he had never previously acquired in hospitals.

He tried to open his mouth to speak but his mouth felt dry, and thick with lack of use. She was already a step ahead, ready with a glass of water, whispering for something he didn't care to listen for. It was when the doors opened and light flooded in, along with Sirius Black, that everything made sense.

He'd been hurt. They we're in Saint Mungo's. And he wasn't dead.

"Why… why am I here?" He asked faintly, focusing on Sirius, who was standing silently at the end of the hospital beds.

"You were hurt, mate." He said weakly. "I know you hate hospitals, but this one was kind of serious."

"No, I mean –"

"I know what you mean." He said quickly, sitting down on the side of the bed. "You're lucky to be alive, Harry, don't ever do that to me again – I don't think my heart could take it."

Mrs Weasley turned on a couple of gas lamps on the far side of the wall quietly before moving to the door. "I have to go and get the Healer, Sirius."

He pulled a face, but nodded once in agreement anyway, before turning back to Harry, who's head was spinning with the confusion of it all. Why hadn't he died?

"Sirius, please…"

He looked away. "You were hit with a rather nasty curse, Harry. It clings onto your soul, and slowly rips it from your body, empowering the person who cast it with your energy, your _life._ When you-know-who sent the killing curse at Ginny, and you jumped in the way, it killed you. The death eater's apparated out, and he claimed victory over your life while Ginny sat on the floor with you- your body. He gave a speech about how it would be high time that he took control – to start a new 'Empire'. I don't know what he's planning, but he mentioned something about overthrowing the Queen, abolishing the muggle government and ridding the country of the Royals. Whatever it is that he's doing, he's not going to stop until he's lording over the country, and the muggles are 'repressed' as they call it.

My dad used to talk about it when I was a kid. He would talk of grandeur and a rise in the 'Great British Empire' once again, by you-know-who's hand. As far as he was concerned, the wizarding world needs order, the pure-bloods ruling over the country, magic out in the open and the muggles and muggle-borns where they 'right-fully belong'. Under our feet." He scowled. "I never took him seriously, he was a bigot. You-know-who was powerful, but not so much that he could do all that. But this time… it feels different. Like something bigger is about to happen. He thinks that you are out of the picture, and so he assumes that that is enough."

Harry was silent for a long time, digesting the information slowly, his mind still fogged up with what had been a death and 4 days in a coma. "But what about Dumbledore? Dumbledore's a bigger threat than me – he's… he's Dumbledore. I can even fight to save my own life."

Sirius shook his head slowly. "He's marked Dumbledore next for death. But even so, you heard the prophecy, Harry."

Ginny rolled onto her back in her sleep, flinging her hand out to grab Harry's closet arm tightly. Warmth spread from that point throughout his entire body, making him jump in surprise. Looking down to where their body's connected, he watched in awe as small jolts of electricity built up slowly between where their skin touched, mostly under her hand, it appeared, as there was an ever so small green glow coming up from the sides. Sirius was watching to. He looked pained.

"Sirius, what happened after I died?" He asked firmly.

"Harry, you _died _surely you want to… take that in… something." He almost pleaded, as if he didn't want to be the one to tell me what was wrong.

"I knew I was going to die when I jumped in front of that curse. I accepted it. I'm alive now, and that's great, really, but I am honestly more bothered about finding out what happened first. I can be grateful later."

The doors opened again, allowing a Healer in that he had never seen and Mrs Weasley in. The Healer sprang into action immediately, checking a chart on the bedside that magically updated itself with any developments. Images of Mrs Weasley worrying over it as her daughter slept swam in his mind.

"Everything seems pretty stable..." She said slowly. "How do you feel?"

"Sore." He said in a monotone, still looking at Sirius, who looked uncomfortable.

"Do you mind if I check your bandages?" She enquired politely, smiling when he gave her a confused look. "You were injured quite badly, do you remember?"

She pulled back the blankets carefully, then lifted his shirt up to show him the thick bandages wrapped around his torso. "There's one on my knee as well…" he said dully, remembering some of the shoddily fought fight, moving his right knee slightly, as if to make sure it was still there.

She looked over her shoulder at Sirius as Mrs Weasley took to her daughters bedside once again. "Have you told him everything that happened yet?" She carefully unwrapped the bandage around his knee, covering the one on his torso back up with his shirt, leaving it alone for the time being.

Sirius shook his head.

"I've told you, he'd be all the better for it if it was you to explain all of this."

He looked over at Ginny. "Should we not wait for her to wake up and tell them both?"

"Actually, I'd rather tell her myself, if that's alright, Sirius. I need to set some ground rules." There was almost dark undertones to the way she spoke.

Before Sirius could argue, the Healer was speaking again. "Your knee is fine, slightly scared, but healed. The other curse you were hit with went a little deeper, and we had to work a little harder to patch it up, but it should heal without any complications. It will take longer though, and it will be painful for you for quite a while." She stood straight and turned to Sirius. "You need to tell him soon, because if he's awake, then Miss Weasley will be soon to follow. And when she wakes, I need to tell them about what they should expect before it's too late."

She raised her eyebrows at him, turning to leave before realising that she'd forgotten something, swivelling around to look at him again. "My name is… well, call me Panda. I'm going to be yours, and Miss Weasleys Healer for what will be a very long time from now, I don't want you to be uncomfortable talking to me." She was blonde, but brown hair was seeping through at the roots, her hair pulled back into a large clip at the back of her head.

"Thank you for keeping me alive, then." Was all he could think to say.

She smiled back brightly, knocking the toe of her shoe against Sirius' shin lightly as she passed in what seemed to be a friendly jab. "Get it done, Sirius." There was a slight twang to her London-drowned accent that he couldn't place. He glared back, reaching up with one hand as she passed to do something perhaps out of habit, only to catch himself before it got there.

She seemed to dodge out of the way automatically anyway out of the same habit they apparently shared. She let herself out and left them to it.

"Do you know her?" he asked curiously.

"Her names Lacy Glyndwr. An old friend from school. She was in Ravenclaw. She went back to Wales after school, I hadn't realised that she worked here until a few days ago. I miss her accent." He added as an afterthought.

"Lacy? But then why…?"

"We, your dad and I, I mean, used to call her Pandora, you know – short for 'Pandora's Box' in sixth year... it just sort of stuck. See she-" he started, only to be stopped by a glaring Mrs Weasley.

"I don't think that's a situation appropriate story, Sirius."

"It's clean." He defended.

"Be that as it may, I don't think she'd appreciate the story being told either." She stood up. "It's your shift. I'm going to go get some rest… floo me if she wakes up."

"Of course."

The moment the door closed behind her he turned to Sirius, fixing him with a look that he hoped made him realise that he wasn't fucking around anymore. "Sirius."

Sirius refused to look his godson in the eye as he began the horrible descent into hell that was explaining Harry Potter's fate in life. "Harry. When Ginny was possessed by Tom Riddle's diary in the Chamber of Secrets all those years ago, he was sucking out her soul, her essence. She almost died that day because he very nearly took it all, until you saved her. Unfortunately life isn't at all that simple, her soul couldn't just be returned to her – it had been manipulated and torn away from her body, it was severed, and broken when she woke up again, and it made her feel uneasy. She spent the years after that having problems with her magic. You see, with magical folk like you and I, we are born with a magical core – that magical core is as much a part of you as your soul is, and if you take away your magic, you are messing with your soul to."

"So her magical core was damaged during the process?"

"Yes." Sirius finally looked at him properly, leaning forward slightly. "And that's where that dark spell comes in."

Harry's heart stopped for a moment. "… The one that Voldemort hit me with?"

Sirius flinched slightly at the use of the dark wizards' name, making Harry scowl slightly despite the situation. "Yes. When a witch or wizard loses their magic, they die. That's the simple fact of the matter. You can't live without a soul no more than you can live without your magic; it's a very important part of you. You were dying, when he hit you with that spell. And when he tried to kill Ginny and you saved her, something strange happened. Ginny's soul was damaged and wasn't strong enough to heal itself, and yours was rapidly being torn apart by the slow depletion of your magical core. Now, as you know, when you save someone's life, a 'bond' of sorts forms. A life debt. If you die in the process it becomes stronger. That person may not be in debt to you, but you are connected as that person lives on. But somehow…. You survived. We don't know how – but you were still alive when you-know-who left."

"I don't understand what you're getting at… none of this makes any sense…" he slowly shook his head.

Sirius stood up in frustration, pacing the room. "Ginny's soul was damaged, and wasn't strong enough to repair itself. Then your magic, and soul with it, was being taken from you by you-know-who. While this was happening, you saved Ginny's life for the second time over, and died in the process. When you came back to life, Ginny collapsed and you were both taken here. Dumbledore arrived and demanded you were put together in a room like this. He explained that because of your bond due to saving her life twice, and the fact that both of your souls were torn and not strong enough to repair themselves without outside help – they latched onto one another for support. You would have died if this hadn't happened. It may even be what brought you back, we don't know – but your souls are working together to regenerate one another, and your magic along with it. Does that make sense?"

"…Sort of." He said uncertainly, looking at Ginny, who slowly rolled onto her side, looking troubled in her sleep.

He looked slightly relieved. "Right. So… basically, if Ginny isn't near you - you will die. Her soul and her magic latching onto yours saved your life, and as you are, you are too weak to function without her aid. If you separate, the distance is likely to sever this bond, which will likely kill her too." He sat back down on the end of the bed. "That's it, there." He pointed to where her hand grasped Harry's arm. "It's… more visible if there is a physical connection for the energy to flow between."

Harry swallowed, hard, not sure what to say. "So… what happens now?" He asked weakly, happy to be alive, but oh so confused as to how he could be.

"You need to stay here until you are well enough to be able to separate from one another. We think – Dumbledore thinks – that once your souls have fixed each other, the bond will be severed and you should be able to go back to your normal lives, with no repercussions. He's not sure of what the side effects will be until then. There was only ever one case similar to this documented and neither of the people involved died or came back to life, so it's all a bit hit and miss."

Harry nodded numbly.

Sirius sat and watched him for a while awkwardly, not sure what else to say. He wanted so badly to take everything back and pretend that everything was okay, but he couldn't. And there wasn't even anything he could say to make it better that wasn't a massive lie. He eventually settled on standing up suddenly and taking a step towards the door. "Do you want me to leave you alone for a bit? I'll be right outside."

Harry nodded again, not looking at him. He sighed and walked outside dejectedly, resigned to watching his godson slowly fall apart for the next few months as the weight of everything that was going wrong in his life weighed down on him like a tonne of bricks.

Harry ended up slipping down back into bed, having to remove himself from Ginny's grasp in the process. Shortly after he found himself comfortable, ready to make himself go to sleep at all costs in order to forget that particular conversation ever happened and just pretend that there was a dark wizard after him that he'd have to kill after all, Ginny moved again – this time so that most of her side was touching his.

The rush of warmth that went through him was unsettling. Staring blankly at the ceiling, ignoring the questions swirling around in his head for what must have been half an hour, he turned to Ginny once again. She didn't know. He wanted to speak to her. She'd understand how weird the situation was. She'd be able to talk to him about it in a way that wasn't completely awkward and useless. Maybe she'd laugh.

But she probably wouldn't. He didn't know what she'd do, and that scared him. Half the fact that she might hate him for what had happened, and half because he was actually in this situation with her, where they'd have to be in close proximity to one another for days, perhaps weeks at a time and he didn't really _know_ anything about her.

"_Please wake up." _


End file.
